April 30 - Willie Nelson

Let’s all inhale together: Happy 80^th Birthday to country music singer/songwriter and legend Willie Nelson. His recorded birthdate is April 30, 1933, though he was delivered on April 29, in Abbott, Texas. His grandfather gave him a guitar at age 6 and taught him chords. He sang gospel songs in the local church, wrote his first song at age 7, and played guitar for a local polka band at age 9. Because he didn’t like picking cotton, he made money singing in dance halls, bars and honky tonks from age 13 through high school. In the early 1960s he wrote songs that included "Funny How Time Slips Away,” "Hello Walls," "Pretty Paper" and the classic "Crazy,” which became a hit with Patsy Cline. Willie’s 1978 album “Stardust,” produced by the legendary Booker T. Jones, is a classic recording of 10 songs that span pop, jazz, country and folk music, including the title song plus “Blue Skies,” “All of Me,” “Moonlight in Vermont,” “Unchained Melody” and Willie’s enduring rendition of “Georgia on My Mind.” He defined a genre when he said, “Three chords and the truth—that’s what a country song is.”